“Indian” Motorcycle Brand Resurrected in American Heartland

. This is a discussion on “Indian” Motorcycle Brand Resurrected in American Heartland within The Two Wheelers. Part of The Auto Talk category; This is what I received in my mailbox today and thought it&#8217;d be a good share. Indian, a motorbike brand ...

This is what I received in my mailbox today and thought it’d be a good share. Indian, a motorbike brand founded in U.S in 1901 has been resurrected after decades of sordid mismanagement and bankruptcy with retro-modern cruisers powered by 111” V-Twin engines (Source: The Indian Motorcycle returns in all its glory | NEWS.GNOM.ES).

Quote:

Imagine the velvety crumple and flap coming from the streamlined Deco exhaust pipes, the chirr of pushrod tappets ricocheting off canyon walls, the snapping pennants at full throttle. Get a load of this thing coming around a corner. You got a permit for this event? The new bikes look fantastic, sound superb and—if my Chief Classic tester was any indication—they ride like buttah. Excuse me while I slip into something leathery.

This bike has awakened some sort of motorcycle sleeper cell in my soul. The whole wicked, bigger-than-Harley longueur of it—103.5 inches from the fat front tire to fatter rear, over a 68.1-inch wheelbase, with a 29-degree rake and 6.1 inches of trail. The steering geometry gives the Indian an arrow-straight riding demeanor, and if you set the cruise control to 60 mph, you can sit back, take your hands off the grips, lean against the wind, and pretty soon, well, you’re in Utah.

It is also what you might call joyously enormous. The undressed Chief, with 5.5 gallons of fuel onboard, weighs 812 pounds. That is one 98-pound weakling more than the Moto Guzzi 1400 California I rode a few months back and it is about 100 pounds more than a Harley Softail. The new Indian represents some significant technical achievements—the two-cylinder, 1.8-liter engine is an insanely optimized upgrade of an architecture that was obsolete 50 years ago, for example—but the people responsible for the new Indian weren’t sweating the pounds.

Indeed, if this bike has a fault, it’s the slight sluggishness in the handlebars at low speed. And small wonder. By way of fealty to Indian’s historic, gotta-have-’em design cues, the new Indian front end sports a mirror-chromed steel headlamp housing the size of a serving tray, with separate dual high-beams and turn signals arrayed across a chromed light bar; mighty mirror-chromed telescopic shocks (119 mm); the signature front fender valance with its translucent Indian chief fender ornament, now illuminated with LED. All of which builds inertia around the steering axis, even before you get a quick-release cop windshield on the Chief Classic or opt for the full fairing that comes with the Chieftain. In short, you have to muscle the handlebars around in tight maneuvering.

In a concession to physics, the Chief has front disc brakes, a lot of them: dual, crossed-drilled floating rotors with four-pot calipers and ABS. There is also a single-rotor rear brake with a carlike brake pedal near the right floorboard, though I confess I can’t get used to rear braking.

All these three bikes use the same platform, which is a cast aluminium frame, telescopic front forks and rear monoshock. The bikes are powered by a 1811cc, V-twin, Thunder Stroke 111 engine which outputs 139 Nm of torque at 2600 RPM.

The Indian Chief Classic is priced at Rs 26.5 lakh and comes with cruise control, keyless entry, light bar and leather seats. These features are standard on all Indian Chief models and the Chief Classic is the entry level offering from the company.